We recently connected with Morgan Mickel and have shared our conversation below.
Morgan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
As a rancher, doing what we do for a job, is less a job than it is a lifestyle. Growing up I watched my friends have summer off school, weekends to go do whatever they wanted, and lots of free time! My summers growing up consisted of time in the hayfields moving irrigation lines, driving tractors, trucks, semis, motorcycles, four wheelers, and heavy equipment at an early age. We spent time on the mountain on horses, going places and doing things on the daily most people have to take off work and take a vacation to experience. This is our life, this is what we do. So the question is: are there times I think of having a regular job? Absolutely! When it’s freezing or hot weather, and i’m outside taking care of animals, or fixing broken pipes, working on tractors in a field, or changing tires on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere on a sunday morning when i could be at home asleep, it definitely crosses my mind. But as I wonder what it would be like to have so much free time, I think I would go completely nuts. After doing what we do for the amount of time we have, we dont wake up and have to go to work, I get to wake up every day in a place that I love, knowing that no matter what the day throws at us, it’s still better than sitting at a desk, Monday through Friday. As the saying goes, if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life and that is what it feels like to be a rancher.
Morgan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Morgan Mickel, we live in central Utah, where we farm, raise sheep, and cows. We produce American Lamb and wool and send it all over the world, all while videoing, recording, and sharing our way of life on Youtube and social media platforms. We take public range grounds that are unusable for anything else, and create High quality products that are sent and used all over the globe. Most people don’t have any clue where their food comes from anymore. We as a society are so far removed from our ancestry that we have forgotten what it takes to create the things we see and take for granted in our marketplace shelves. As a lifelong rancher I have always had a passion for photography and videography. What we do is so unique and a few years ago I set out to show the world what it is that we do as ranchers, wool growers, beef producers, and farmers of America. Through youtube I have been able to share our content with people from all over the world, raising awareness and showing the beauty in the simple yet elegant lifestyle we live. People watch popular shows like “yellowstone” and imagine a world that in their mind is fictional, when in reality, there are parts of shows that we experience every day, Albeit a lot less dramatic in most ways! We live in a place where there are more animals than people. We do what we can to preserve what we do in order to give our children and family a life we can be proud to live. We love what we do, and having the privilege of making content and sharing it on youtube has allowed me to open our world to more and more people every day. Everything I have learned about filming, video editing, and advertising I have had to figure out along the way, from friends willing to help, and youtube tutorials on how to do this, or that. I always am looking to better represent the way of life, we and so many others live and enjoy. One of the major issues we deal with in this kind of lifestyle is the fact that, at least in our area, it’s getting too expensive to raise livestock on a scale big enough to support a family. Farm and range ground is getting developed at a rate so high it leaves us scrambling oftentimes to keep our operation growing and successful. There is always someone who is willing to pay more for ground they can build houses on, than we can afford to pay to feed with livestock. There are fewer and fewer younger people getting into farming, and ranching than ever before. And less even still that are able to share and make our lifestyle known. Older generations lack the knowledge and desire to share any of what they do, so it’s up to a few to show what an amazing lifestyle we live and raise awareness to those who do not know, or understand where their food comes from, and how it came to be.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Ranching in itself is a lifestyle. The days don’t start at 8 and end at 5. There are days that start early and we don’t end until the work is done. Time is a factor we never seem to have enough of! Add filming, editing, and posting to social media to the mix and it doesn’t leave much extra time or energy at the end of the day. In order to stay consistent with youtube, there is almost never a day that goes by that I am not filming something! My camera and drone go everywhere with me. And when I mean everywhere, I mean everywhere. I custom made a toolbox that locks together to carry my camera gear with me no matter where my day takes me, whether it be in the backcountry on the back of a horse, a dusty tractor in a field, or a big rig driving down the interstate my cameras roll with me. At the end of the day there are many long hours into the early hours of the morning editing, finishing, and working on posting videos to youtube. It’s always a joy to watch another video get uploaded to my channel and see my viewers watch and comment, making it all the long days and hours worth it.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Building a social media presence was one thing I knew nothing about when I started this crazy journey on Youtube. In fact there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t learn something new! I’m constantly listening to podcasts and trying to figure out how to film, or edit better, how to be more consistent, how to grow my channel, and find new ways to tell our story. The best advice I could ever give to someone who is just starting out on their own journey is: just start! I spent several years filming what we did simply to have the videos just on my phone and computer. Countless videos that never were seen by anyone! I was always worried about what people would think. would they like what I was posting? Would they make fun of me for trying something new? The reality is if you never start, you will never know! Everyone that has started on youtube and social media will tell you that no matter what you think, the first videos, and projects you do will more than likely be terrible, and that’s ok! You have to start somewhere! Get out there, make more content, and get better with time. The sooner you start, the sooner you will learn, and the sooner you will grow. It’s all part of the journey.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Morgan_mickel5
- Facebook: The Morgan Mickel Channel
- Youtube: The Morgan Mickel Channel
Image Credits
all photos are mine